Benfica warmed up for their crunch Europa League clash with Rangers by being absolutely dismantled by Primeira Liga rivals Boavista 3-0.
Rangers are set to travel to Lisbon this week to face the Portuguese giants in their third match of the group stages and up until now, Jorge Jesus’ side was in fine form.
But despite naming a near full-strength side for the trip to Porto, Benfica were ripped apart in their first league defeat of the season.
Prior to the Boavista humbling, Benfica had started their league campaign with five straight wins as they look to reclaim their Portuguese crown from current champions, Porto.
The on-form outfit thought they’d started the match against Boavista in the same vein after Uruguayan striker Darwin Nunez curled in an effort on 10 minutes.
But the goal was disallowed for offside by VAR and things would take a turn only minutes later when Everton Soares downed Angel Gomes inside the box with the midfielder dispatching the spot-kick.
Alberth Elis would then leave As Águias stunned when he lifted the ball over Benfica keeper Odysseas Vlachodimos to make it two before halftime.
Benfica would have another goal disallowed for offside just before halftime but even a stern talking to by the legendary Jorge Jesus wasn’t enough to transform their fortunes.
Yanis Hamache would then round off the scoring with 15 minutes to go after some slow Benfica defending allowed him to place the ball into a top corner.
It was a suitably miserable evening for Portugal’s most successful club and will give Rangers some encouragement heading into Thursday night’s match.
Both sides have won their opening Group D matches and after a summer of spending which totalled almost £90m, the Reds are set to pose Rangers’ biggest test of the season so far.
